Chicago Bears report on the 23:20 loss to the Detroit Lions

Luckily, the Bears played Detroit early and many fans planned to have their Thanksgiving dinner right after the game ended.

If they had eaten before the game was over, digestion might have been compromised.

There’s actually some good going on in his series of Chicago disasters near the end of the game.

Critics laughed and called Caleb Williams a wasted draft pick earlier this season, but now the joke is on them. His performance is the only thing that adds value to another worthless Bears season.

A 16-0 deficit, a 16-7 deficit, a 23-7 deficit and he just kept shooting.

Aside from coach Matt Eberflus making late-game decisions or not, the Bears now have a quarterback who has set the franchise rookie record for consecutive passes without an interception and the NFL rookie record for the same thing.

No other rookie this year has thrown three touchdown passes in a half as he did in the second half with his 31-yard touchdown passes to Keenan Allen and DJ Moore and his 9-yarder touchdown passes to Allen.

The Bears had enough time to not only force overtime, but also win the game.

Instead, they took home a timeout after actually having to call a timeout with 43 seconds left because they ran out of time to start a play before being hit with a delay-of-game penalty.

Who gets a delay of game penalty during two-minute drills?

They should have taken that timeout to organize themselves before the sack, and then definitely took another one after the sack to make sure they still had time to move it a short distance to get into range of the field Goals to reach.

When it was all over, Cole Kmet was left to agonize over the ending.

“Honestly, I don’t even know,” he told reporters. “I… suddenly everyone leaves the field and the game is over. So I thought to myself, what just happened to the ‘fff’?”

Many Bears fans had to wonder the same thing.

Here are the grades for the Turkey Day game, because the Bears once again deserve to be told that the famous line Harry Dunne delivered to Lloyd Christmas after the dog carrier was traded for a minibike.

“Just when I think you can’t possibly be stupider, you do something like this… and COMPLETELY redeem yourself!”

Passing game: B

The first half was so atrocious that it’s hard to give them anything better than a B. Williams throw for just 34 yards. The second half didn’t end well. But Caleb Williams’ 132.29 passer rating in the second half, going 15 of 24 for 222 yards and three touchdowns, was just another indication of where he’s gotten to as a passer over the last three games.

DJ Moore had a 97-yard game on eight catches and Allen had 73 yards on five receptions, all despite an offensive line that saw them allow five more sacks from Williams. He has 49 sacks this year. Cole Kmet’s offensive pass interference penalties proved annoying, and one of the two actually looked like a penalty.

Running Game: D+

There wasn’t much behind it other than a 12-yard run by D’Andre Swift and a 13-yard Williams scramble. Her 78 yards on 15 carries resulted in an average of 5.2 yards per carry, boosted largely by Williams’ 9.8 yards per scramble. Run blocking gave Swift little wiggle room beyond 2 or 3 yards on his first attack. Only a few blockers made it downfield.

Pass Defense: B

By limiting Jared Goff to a passer rating of 100.2, they actually held him below his season average. The touchdown passes he threw to Sam LaPorta were easy as they came out of play and froze coverage near the goal line. The Bears actually held LaPorta to three catches for 6 yards, Jahmyr Gibbs to two catches for 17 yards and Jameson Williams to 28 yards on five catches, after all, the numbers were much better on average. Amon-Ra St. Brown didn’t even reach his average number of catches with five and was only 6 yards above his season average. The pass rush only produced one sack by Gervon Dexter, but the pressure was significantly greater in the second half of the game as it allowed the offense to turn the game around.

Run Defense: D

The 194 yards Detroit ran on 33 carries would normally be a solid F, but they managed a turnaround in the second half, allowing just 50 yards as they negated the cutback Jahmyr Gibbs relied on and both Forced defenders into gang tackles. Especially in the second half, Dexter picked up his game against the run.

Special Teams: B-

With an average of 55.8 yards on four punts, Tory Taylor also had one inside the 20 and was good enough for even their usually weak covergage team to help keep his net average at 45.3. Allowing four punt returns for 10.5 per return didn’t help the Bears with their field position, but the real problem on special teams was D’Andre Carter misplaced a punt again and allowed a punt to get past to make it to the 1st -inch line to roll. It’s been two weeks in a row where Carter has struggled with his punts. The kick coverage group performed better, making a crucial 23-yard stop in the second half. They also had a good rush on Jake Bates’ missed field goal.

Coaching: D-

While Thomas Brown got the game back in order in the second half, Matt Eberflus’ clock errors and failure to take advantage of a timeout ultimately proved crucial. Inexcusable coaching at the end of the game for a team whose head coach is already under scrutiny.

Overall: C

C is an average grade and the way the Bears ended this game was really pretty average for them this season.

Twitter: BearsOnSI